The Mammoth Foundation in Shenzhen donated key laboratory equipment to a biomedical research center in Latvia on Friday.
Professor Janis Klovins, director of the Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Center, who received the BGI Fire Eye lab equipment on behalf of the center, described the donation as a very important addition to the center’s capabilities in COVID-19 research, specifically viral sequencing.
According to Klovins, with the new equipment, the center’s capacity could be raised to over 200 samples per week from the current 32.
Klovins believed that the Chinese equipment will be highly useful in other COVID-19 research projects as well. It is expected to help with automation of nucleic acids extraction and improvement of work efficiency of Latvia’s virus detection.
So far, a total of 1,088 patients have been confirmed positive in Latvia, according to the data released yesterday by the Latvian Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The donation was coordinated by the Chinese Embassy in Latvia and the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.